Here’s My Story

By Phil Tarley
In 1964, I turned thirteen. I was a wild child, filled with a bursting curiosity about the world out there I wanted to explore. Craving adventure like the feral, ferocious horn dog, I would soon become, I was on fire for something more in my life.

By Michael Manganiello
“I spent my early career in the theater and eventually went on to own a restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen. A career advocating for the rights of patients had not occurred to me until two defining moments occurred in my life.”

By Melanie Carden
“It may seem unlikely that a black football star and a white drag queen’s hot pants are cut from the same cloth, but shimmy into your spandex and follow me,” …

by Sarah Priestman
Her son’s s tattoo “visible” was a present from her for his 18th birthday. He is transgender, and to him, visibility is an antidote to stigma; it’s refusing what most of the world still wants trans people to do: disappear.

By Samir El Mouti
I was that boy whose body was shackled by toxic masculinity. I was that boy, wearing a mask on a stage performing for a too large audience that I could handle, called society. In that experience, I punished my body, and it punished me in return. The social mirror where I could see myself was cracked and distorted. …I was a sinner. …

By Jonathan Zepeda
If you were to encounter Carson Russell and his husband walking down the street in downtown Seattle, you’d find yourself in a pleasant exchange with a charming man. If you caught him in uniform, you’d likely thank him for his service and …

By Martha Shelley
My wife Sylvia and I moved into our house in Portland in 2005. We met our neighbors, Don and Sarah, who are Pentecostal Christians. When Sarah said she believed that God created the universe about 6,000-10,000 years ago, I said I go with the astronomers …

By James Carnelia
In 2010, five years before the Obergefell decision, New York, my home state, had still not made same sex marriage legal, but was honoring out-of-state marriages. My partner and I talked about marrying, but actually, we were ambivalent about engaging in such a ritual.